Oscars new members: eight things we learned from the 2016 invite list

Check your postbox: this year the Academy has asked an unprecedented number of film industry luminaries to join their ranks as part of a drive to double diversity by the end of the decade. Heres what were taking away from the RSVPs

Being white and male doesnt guarantee you a place at the table

Ken Loach, now 80, won the Palme dOr for the second time this year and has for the past 50 or so been an absolute bastion of quality film-making. Hes cited by many of the worlds top directors as an inspiration, and he makes the kind of liberal fare even the grandest Hollywood cigar-chomper would grudgingly concede has credit. Past winners are automatically invited, but, still, the invite for Mark Rylance also serves to show just how long it was before the movies really worked out how to use him.

The British film industry may be better at diversity

For once, us Brits are in. Beckinsale, Boyega, Pinto, Watson the actors category is stuffed full of UK players. Even lovely (but non-diverse) Tom Hiddleston has nabbed a spot. Does this mean Britains pool of acting talent is a rich old diversity soup? No. Are we marginally better than America at giving people other than straight white men a leg up? Probably. Hooray for Britain! For once.

Ditto documentaries

Smaller budgets, fewer gatekeepers, more autonomy documentary has always been (slightly) easier to break into if youre not male and/or white. The new crop here are fairly representative of the makeup across the genre. Also worth noting that, Asif Kapadia and Joshua Oppenheimer aside, theres fewer WTF Arent They Members Already?! moments here.

Whatever rationale is used to decide which titles to credit the invitees with, its not working

The Academy have gone a bit dotty here. Emma Watson is the star of The Bling Ring and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. No mention of Hogwarts. Perhaps theyre going for cred? But then Tom Hiddlestons listed CV highlights are Crimson Peak and The Avengers. Never mind his many classier credits. Its inconsistent at best. Perhaps it would have been kinder for the Academy to have picked one perfect, one pap? They did that for Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha, To Rome with Love). Seems fairest.